This new spirit of Irish nationality infused into the people compelled the House of Commons to commit a kind of suicide. Hitherto, Parliaments were unlimited as to time, and consequently practically irresponsible to the people. The last one had sat for thirty years. Pressure was so brought to bear on that which met on the accession of George III., that it was compelled to petition the king for a seven years' limit as in England. It was too much to expect that what even loyal Irish asked for should be granted, but the case made was so strong, that eight years was fixed as the life of future Irish Parliaments. This change necessitated a new election, at which Sir Edward O'Brien and Francis Burton were returned for the county of Clare, and Lucius O'Brien a son of Sir Edward—and Thomas Burton for the borough of Ennis. This Lucius O'Brien being a man of considerable ability, employed it largely in promoting Irish interests, which meant of course Protestant interests only, in Parliament. Of his views regarding Catholics we have already a specimen given above. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1765.

The other most important measures with which his name as member for Clare was associated were the independence of the judiciary, and some salutary checks put upon the wasteful and dishonest expenditure of public moneys.. Before this chapter, which covers the worst period of the Penal Laws, closes, it is but common justice to record the constancy with which the great bulk of the people of Clare clung to the old faith. Some, indeed, bent before the storm. Their names, with the dates of their submission, appear on lists still preserved in the British Museun, called the "Egerton MSS. 77," and from which they have been published in Lenihan's carefully compiled History of Limerick. I do not care to reproduce them here, because I find on examination that most of those families have either disappeared entirely, or are now represented by Catholics. At the present time there. are not three per cent. of the whole population non-Catholic. This fact speaks for itself. It bears silent but eloquent testimony to the utter failure and collapse of the Penal Laws in Clare.

CHAPTER XXV.

FROM 1770 TO 1801.

Condition of Clare - Dilapidation-Commerce impeded Population increasing - Families from Neighbouring Counties-Public Spirit reviving First Signs of Toleration-Building of Catholic ChapelsClare Members of Parliament on the side of Liberty-Relief Acts— Nationalist Meeting at Ennis-Spanish Admiral O'Kuoney-Donogh Rua MacNamara-And. Magrath-Thomas Dermody-Other Clare Celebrities of the last century.

EVEN at this period, A.D. 1771, so long after the Williamite subjugation, the county had scarely yet begun to recover from the prostrate condition into which it had been flung. The means of communication between the people were of the worst kind. Roads were few and bad, and badly kept. They were run invariably against the hill-tops for the purpose of securing at little cost a solid foundation. Produce was carried to fairs and markets on the backs of horses, or dragged on rude sleighs over the ill-constructed, narrow roads. Eugene O'Curry mentions, at p. 369, Ordnance Survey, that his grandfather, Melaghlan O'Curry, a large farmer, employed his men, horses, and sledges in burying the victims of the famine of 1741. Dean Kenny of Ennis, with whom the writer lived for some time, told him that even at the beginning of the present century these primitive modes of conveyance were still in use. The almost equally rude and inconvenient block-wheeled carts began to be used first about this time. Some of them are yet preserved as relics of this transition period. The wealthiest of the gentry owned heavy four-wheeled carriages, but seldom used them, because of the difficulty of drawing them up and down the steep and dangerous roads. Spring cars were totally unknown. Pillions, upon which the gentleman's or farmer's wife sat behind her

husband on horseback, took their place, and were much used far on into the present century. The need for strong and sure-footed horses for saddle-work in such circumstances stimulated the breeding of high-class animals, and thus Spancil Hill Fair acquired celebrity all over Ireland.

The general state of the county was still in a very sorry condition. The traces of the long and disastrous conflict. were abundant on every side. The ruins of churches, monasteries, and forsaken homes, covered the land, while very little was done in the way of reconstruction. The towns and villages were mere rows of thatched huts, and without buildings of any architectural character to relieve their dreariness. It is related that when Paul Liddy, the Feacle freebooter, who, like another Clareman, MacNamara of Cong, levied blackmail on the English intruders, and was generous with it to the dispossessed, was arrested and lodged in Ennis jail, his gang found it easy to set a great part of the town on fire, and while all available hands-those in charge of the jail included-were busily engaged in quenching the flames, they actually broke through the jail walls and liberated.

him.

The poorer people, entirely cowed and at the mercy of the new-comers, burrowed in unsightly cabins in out-of-the-way places, and lived on the potato almost exclusively. The good things of the land went in the shape of rent to supply delicacies to the tables of its new owners. They knew practically nothing of the outside world. Education was at the lowest ebb. Their whole intellectual training was confined to what they snatched at intervals from the hedge-schoolmaster, or heard at Mass-time from the carefully-concealed priest. How it was that in such depressing conditions the love of learning, as well as of country, was transmitted so vigorously, can only be explained by the admittedly strong elastic tone of the Celtic mind.

As the century waxed on, some little religious toleration began to be displayed. In this respect Clare was much better off than the sister-county Tipperary, more especially the northern-the Dalcassian-half, with which this history is so much concerned. There the Cromwellian conquest had

been complete, and a Puritanical element of the most overbearing and insolent type had been largely implanted. It was not so in Clare. A considerable number of the gentry were of the old stock. They had indeed abandoned the old faith, but with them in some degree "blood told." For instance, Sir Donogh O'Brien became legal owner of the Clenagh and Ballylean property, only to protect it and restore it honourably to the MacMahons. A large number, too, of the new proprietors, though of English blood and faith, were only purchasers, and had not come into direct collision with the despoiled. For these reasons a better feeling began to grow up, and though the repressive enactments were still there, and hung like a millstone round the necks of the peasantry, inasmuch as they could be at any time appealed to, they were not rigidly enforced. The Catholic religion began to be practised a little more openly. Priests felt more secure ; and though they dared not put themselves much in evidence by building stately churches, or turning to account any of those that had been seized and unroofed, they commenced putting up those little thatched chapels all over the county, mostly in remote spots, the last of which--those of Kilclaran in Feacle, and Toovara near Lisdoonvarna--have only lately given place to edifices more worthy of the purpose to which they are dedicated.

No suitable provision was yet made for the education in Ireland of the Catholic clergy. The sons of the Catholic gentry, as well as professional and mercantile aspirants, had still to go abroad, or else receive their education in an atmosphere so saturated with aggressive Protestantism as that of Trinity College and kindred institutions. Not a few of these succumbed to the temptation of falling in with the wealthy and favoured professors of the new faith; and their descendants are still easily recognisable in Clare. Of those who went abroad some fell under the influence of French infidel teaching. They found no difficulty in dropping the Catholic religion, and with it the brand of inferiority which had been fixed on it in these countries.

Meanwhile the population was again rapidly increasing. It received numerous accessions in Cromwell's time and since

from the neighbouring counties. There were always close relations, friendly or unfriendly, between the people of South Galway-the O'Kellys, O'Shaughnessys, O'Donnellans, and Burkes-and those of Clare; and so those names are found scattered all over the county. O'Connells, O'Sullivans, and O'Scanlans came in from Kerry, and O'Donovans, O'Sheas, Conways, and O'Callaghans from Limerick and Cork. From Tipperary, many families of Hogans, Slatterys, Corbetts, Ryans, Keatings, Gleesons, settled down in Clare. All the foregoing, and others who had assumed English surnames after the last siege of Limerick, intermarrying largely with the old Clare stock, contributed to the pronounced Celtic character of the vast bulk of its population. Another name that should find a place in this enumeration is that of Murphy. Families of the name in every class of society are widely scattered not alone over Clare, but over all the counties of Ireland. This is due to the fact that it has its origin in the Christian patronymic Morogh, used very generally in the families of Irish princes and chieftains. the parish of Kilmihil, about eight miles from Kilrush, a stone-fort of unusually large dimensions occupies a commanding position on the top of a hill. It is now called Cahermurphy, and gives its name to the townland, but in the language of the Irish-speaking people it is still "CahirMorogha."

In

At the time of which we are now writing, George III. had been for some years on the throne. As has been already stated, one of the first Acts forced on the Irish Parliament by the strong feeling through the country after his accession, was to limit the duration of Parliaments to eight years. Under this new system the first members sent by the very restricted constituency of Clare were-for the county, Sir Edward O'Brien and Francis P. Burton; for the borough of Ennis, Lucius O'Brien, son of the former, and Mr. Thos. Burton. Sir Edward, dying in 1765, was succeeded by his son in the baronetcy, and by Mr. Charles MacDonnell as M.P. for the county. The limiting of the duration of Parliaments brought them into more frequent touch with the constituencies, and so created more popular interest in their